Event organizers estimate more than 400 people attended a Jan. 28 benefit for the family of Nancy Hanna, a Bristol resident injured in a Dec. 13 motor vehicle accident.
“We are absolutely thrilled,” Andrea Cox, one of the organizers, said.
The benefit featured a bake sale, silent auction and spaghetti dinner.
At times, the food line stretched around three sides of the Bristol Consolidated School gym, while the line to enter stretched down the hallway outside. Vehicles filled the school’s parking lot and lined both sides of Rt. 130.
Hanna remains at Maine Medical Center and was unable to attend the event.
“She’s healing,” Nate Hanna, Nancy Hanna’s husband, said. “She’s doing well in spirits, all things considered.”
Nancy Hanna’s doctors say she’ll be able to stand in about two weeks, Nate Hanna said. She’ll stay in Portland indefinitely, however, for rehab.
Cox, a cousin to Nate Hanna and, like Nate and Nancy Hanna, a parent of a BCS student, organized the event with fellow BCS parent Jen Eckel and Rev. Julia Wilson, the pastor of the Round Pond United Methodist Church.
The organizers, with just a short period of time to plan, approached a handful of Round Pond businesses to solicit donations. The effort quickly gained momentum.
Cox said she continued to receive e-mails and Facebook messages from people eager to help – including many strangers – until the day of the event.
The organizers received 135 items for the silent auction, from gift cards to a week’s stay at Brackett’s Oar House, a seasonal cottage on Monhegan Island.
The auction went “really, really well,” Cox said. “Everything went home with somebody.”
The community also donated all the food for the event, except for a small supply run as spaghetti reserves ran low.
“We’re really, really pleased and grateful for everyone who did their part to make it a screaming success,” Cox said.
